Seeing Like A State
Presentation:
ch. 6, The Revolutionary Party: A Plan and Diagnosis
Lenin and the Soviet Union
1. High Modernism. Small group of people who know a lot and wantt to dictate how to live. State centrality and structure imposed by the state is presented in this notion of high modernism. The proliteriate and masses are stagnant. All movement is from the elite. Lenin said he science, technology and answers to any question and he would tell people and spread it to the masses (pg. 147).
2. Lenin: The analogy of the vangaurd party being the brain and the masses being the body (pg. 149). Spontinaity and unionizing were two dangers of the working class. Hierachy of the people, there was a great distinction between elites, working class and proliteriates. Lenin was concerned with the contamination of his revolutionaries who trained the workers. Yet education was the primal role in his revolutionary. He knew he he had to control education. This was his form of propaganda and information dispersal.
3. Revolution, Lenin, despite what he said, picked up the revolution. he picked the revolution out of the masses and moved it to the elites. After he gets power he needs to have uprising wehre everyone is involved but then makes sure his power is secured after (pg.161). Lenin had propoganda that is conducive to all classes, yet believes opposite because he wants elite to be in control. Lenin wants to make a machine that can control society.
Important Variables of Lenins argument for society and state control:
Economy, everyting is planned out and structured. You need this structure in order to keep control over the nation. Centrality of the state is needed for the economy to function. ex) collect taxes
Capitalism, Fordism and prouction in form of the assembly line. "hand loom gives oyu feudalism whereas the power loom gives you capitalism."
Agriculture, industrial farming is more procuctive than small family farms. Technology again wa the answer to success. Lenin saw the introduction of electricity as an important element in the agricultural revolution. It was an example centrality. Electricity provided a visible line of transmission form one central point.
People: Luxembourg, criticized Lenin. She believed the flood of the masses strike could not be controlled or predicted. She had more of a reflection of the masses. She also believed that the dictorialship and mistrust of the proliteriates made for bad educational policy. Kollontay and Shylyiapnikov, They were alarmed with the control of the state and saw the unionizing as a link to the party's instruction.
Above are the notes and outline for our presentation.